Reporting
suggest Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US,
including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release of Shaykh
Umar Abd al-Rahman, Ramzi Yousef, and Muhammad Sadiq Awda. One source
quoted a senior member of the Gama at al-Islamiyya (IG) saying that,
as of late October, the IG had completed planning for an operation
in the US on behalf of Bin Ladin, but that the operation was on hold.
A senior Bin Ladin operative from Saudi Arabia was to visit IG
counterparts in the US soon thereafter to discuss options – perhaps
including an aircraft hijacking.

IG leader
Islambuli in late September was planning to hijack a US airliner
during the “next couple of weeks” to free Abd al-Rahman and the
other prisoners, according to what may be a different source. The
same source late last month said that Bin Ladin might implement plans
to hijack US aircraft before the beginning of Ramadan on 20 December
and that two members of the operational team had evaded security
checks during a recent trial at an unidentified New York airport.

Some
members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training,
according to various sources, but no group directly tied to Bin
Ladin's al-Qaida organization has ever carried out an aircraft
hijacking. Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations
against US aircraft.